Shia LaBeouf

Shia Saide LaBeouf (born June 11, 1986) is an American actor, voice actor, and comedian. LaBeouf began his comedy career when he was 10 years old, and then launched his acting career in 1998 at the age of 12. He became known among younger audiences for his part in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens, also appearing in three Disney TV movies. In 2003, LaBeouf made his theatrical film debut in Holes, also appearing in the lead role in The Battle of Shaker Heights that same year.

In 2005, LaBeouf made his transition into more mature roles with The Greatest Game Ever Played. In 2007, he starred as the leads in Disturbia and Transformers. The following year he appeared in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as Indiana's son and starred as Jerry Shaw in Eagle Eye. In 2009, LaBeouf reprised his role as Sam Witwicky in the Transformers sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and appeared in New York, I Love You, before co-starring with Michael Douglas in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010). His upcoming films include the lead roles in Transformers: Dark of the Moon and The Associate. In 2004, he made his directorial debut by directing "Lets Love Hate" with Lorenzo Eduardo. Five years later, he also directed Cage's music video for the single "I Never Knew You".

LaBeouf was in a long-term relationship with China Brezner, which began in 2004 and ended in 2007. He then dated Carey Mulligan from the summer of 2009 to October 2010. In November 2007, LaBeouf was arrested for misdemeanor criminal trespassing in a Chicago Walgreens after refusing to leave; the criminal charges were dropped the following month. In July 2008, LaBeouf was involved in a car accident, which was caused by the other driver. LaBeouf was arrested at the scene of the car accident for misdemeanor drunk driving, and his driver's license was suspended for one year because he refused a breathalyzer examination. As a result of the injuries he sustained from the accident, he has undergone multiple surgeries on his left hand, which has permanent damage and scarring.

LaBeouf was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Shayna (née Saide) and Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf. LaBeouf's mother, a native of New York, is a dancer and ballerina turned visual artist and clothing jewelry designer; before she met LaBeouf's father, she ran a head shop in Brooklyn. LaBeouf's father is a Vietnam War veteran who "drifted" from job to job, working as a mime at a circus, a snow cone salesman, a rodeo clown, a stand-up comedian, and touring with the Doobie Brothers as their opening act. LaBeouf's mother is Jewish and his father is a Cajun (once described by LaBeouf as a "Ragin' Cajun"). LaBeouf was raised in his mother's Jewish religion and had a Bar Mitzvah, though he was also baptized.LaBeouf has said that he comes from "five generations of performers" and was "acting when [he] came out of the womb." One of LaBeouf's great-grandmothers played piano in gangster Lucky Luciano’s casino. LaBeouf's maternal grandfather, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who shared his first name, was a comedian who worked in the Borscht Belt of the Catskill Mountains and sidelined as a barber for the Mafia. LaBeouf's alcoholic paternal grandfather was a Green Beret in the military and LaBeouf's paternal grandmother was a Beatnik poet and lesbian who associated with Allen Ginsberg.

LaBeouf has described his parents as "hippies", his father as "tough as nails and a different breed of man", and his upbringing as similar to a "hippy lifestyle", stating that his parents were "pretty weird people, but they loved me and I loved them." The actor also accompanied his dad to alcoholic anonymous meetings. LaBeouf has also said he was subjected to verbal and mental abuse by his father, who once pointed a gun at his son during a Vietnam War flashback.LaBeouf says his father was "on drugs" during his childhood and was placed in drug rehabilitation for heroin addiction while LaBeouf's mother was "trying to hold down the fort." His parents eventually divorced, mainly due to financial problems, and LaBeouf had what he has described as a "good childhood", growing up poor with his mother, who worked selling fabrics and brooches in Echo Park, Los Angeles, California. LaBeouf's uncle was going to adopt him at one stage because his parents could not afford to have him anymore and "they had too much pride to go on welfare or food stamps." As a way of dealing with his parents divorce he would perform for his family, mimicking his father.

LaBeouf attended 32nd Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet in Los Angeles (LAUSD) and Alexander Hamilton High School, although he received most of his education from tutors. Following high-school, LaBeouf was accepted to Yale University but declined, later saying, "[I am] getting the kind of education you don't get at school," although he would like to attend college. 

In a May 2009 Parade magazine interview, LaBeouf commented on how his parents' personal struggles, and his childhood, had an influence on him, "My dad and my mom were both artists who never found an audience for their artwork. And so I lived in poverty. Now that I'm not poor, I know that is what it was. Like Hemingway said, you can't write anything if you've never been shot at or been gored by a bull, you know? So I look back at that stuff and I'm grateful. It's like scars. You become proud of them." In that same interview, LaBeouf explained that part of what he remembers is in 1988, when he was two, his dad began dressing him up as a clown and putting him to work shilling for the family's pushcart business. LaBeouf recalled, "It was a hustle. We’d walk around the neighborhood in full clown regalia... My embarrassment factor didn't exist. I had fun, because I knew that in the middle of a performance my parents couldn't fight. So, for sure, every day, there had to be some peaceful time for us, or we weren't going to make it through the week financially."

  

TEXT MESSAGE
Give it all to God:

Your past regrets

Your present problems

Your future ambitions

Your fears

Your dreams

Your weaknesses

Your habits

Your hurts

and hang- ups...

Put God in the driver's

seat of your life

and take your hands off

the steering wheel....

don't be afraid:

nothing under his drive

can ever be out of control...

God Bless...